Looking for CAD system recommendation

[WhiteBlue]

I'm from the old school where designing was learned with a drawing board and pencil. Nevertheless I'm going to bite the bullet and learn to do 3D design at last. I would appreciate some advice which systems are quick to learn and not too expensive for an SMB. A friend pointed me to ALIBRE and I'm doing a 30 day test on this system. I still think that it could be a lot more user friendly and intuitive.

One thing I hate is the operating system switch that I have to do. I'm usually on OSX Snow Leopard and I have to switch to Windows Vista to run ALIBRE.

I'm primarily interested in doing schematic design to show people how I would solve particular issues in machinery design. I'm not into F1 design but more like customized or special machine tools with a focus on the drive technology. It would be perfect if the systems comes with standardized elements like electric motors, hydraulic actuators, linear guides, bearings and such that you can pick from a library by basic parameters and snap into your design.

Any help appreciated.

[tomislavp4]

I have used Catia, SolidWorks, SolidEdge and Inventor. Of those four SW was the most straightforward and easy to learn for me and it is the one that I recommend if you can afford it. There is a database with standard bearings, bolts and what not. You can also save your own stuff in there and re-use it when you need it. If you can get the motion add-on you´ll be able to simulate your designs and see how they behave and make adjustments.

If you can get SW

[Robbobnob]

SolidWorks and AutoDesk Inventor are practically the same product, both with inbuilt librarys for standard parts, which im sure can be expanded by downloading product catalogues.

I have also used Creo Elements(Pro/Engineer), a far more technical interface, but the more powerful sketching tool. Handy, particularly for programming the machining process for the product, however can be tedious and rather vague at times.

However i believe that learning CAD is more about the process that you implement rather than the tools your using, as the same basic principles can be used in all CAD programs.

As far as FEA and CFD packages go, Autocad and Inventor work with the majority of them, Creo can usually be sourced incojunction with ANSYS.

I am also currently experimenting with Altair Hyperworks, to do design optimisation, basically combining FEA into the design process, instead of doing iterative derivations of a product, it can be designed to specifications.

All that being said, being a student i benefit by having these programmes available for free at the university and through various internships i have had, cost wise you might just be better off going for a free CAD, like Rhino

[Smokes]

i would really reccomend solidegde for what your doing, It much easier to drafting of the models and complex assemblies than solidworks. I the down side to edge is you NEED a 3d mouse to use it properly, and the Inferface is a little harder to use than solidw works, but having said that edge it a lot more refined as weld tool is 10 time better and it shows the welds in the drawings. The blocks can be loaded in the drawing sheet so you can have libray of diagram symbols for P&ID, Note and callout are much esier to save and load.

[flynfrog]

I have used almost every thing and I will give a +1 for SW or Inventor. If you are just playing with it you can get free versions of inventor for education use only.

[mep]

Sounds almost like you want to do 2D design.
Maybe you should tell us first if you want 2 or 3D.
In case of 3D Inventor is easy to learn and cheap.

[marcush.]

Sounds almost like you want to do 2D design.
Maybe you should tell us first if you want 2 or 3D.
In case of 3D Inventor is easy to learn and cheap.

Inventor 2012 pro is 9ooo€ ,I have the offer here on my desk.
So it´s not any cheaper than Creo you can get it for around the same.

A lot of money for a few sketches.

If you only intend to use it only privately ,Creo 5.0 (ProE) is available for not even 200€ (advertised for 167€ on their site ,the end price is below 200€)..I´d say that´s bang for buck unbeatable.


Inventor is only available as a 30days trial ..no private licence

[Carlos]

CADintosh for Mac is a 2D program that costs 30 Euro.
It's just 2D but it has the one feature you mentioned:
"I'm primarily interested in doing schematic design to show people how I would solve particular issues in machinery design." WB

Sections from a drawing can be displayed in sub-windows in any size and edited with all available functions (for example, it is possible to draw or dimension a line from one sub-window to another sub-window or main window)

When changes are made all sub-windows are updated automatically

http://www.lemkesoft.com/content/189/cadintosh.html
( I have a copy of it somewhere, but, of course, you can download a trial )

Or

TurboCAD 15 Deluxe 2D/3D for Mac costs $89.99USD or $129.99USD ...
Low price from a discounter like purplus offering V5/High price from TurboCAD offering V6 and IMSI TurboCAD Professional Platinum is a little more more - $149.99.

TurboCAD Homepage:
http://www.turbocad.com/TurboCAD/TurboC ... fault.aspx

or

You can run any Windows program on Paralles Destop 6 for Mac for about $45USD
(Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard or later/Mac OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard or later)

[WhiteBlue]

Thanks to all of you for all the good advise. I'm slowly warming up to ALIBRE and it looks like I will keep it. I will definitely need a full 3D system and it looks like it is easy in this system to build fully mobile assemblies.

[spacer]

One thing I hate is the operating system switch that I have to do. I'm usually on OSX Snow Leopard and I have to switch to Windows Vista to run ALIBRE.

Just wanted to comment on this one. Whatever you do, do not convert any PC to Vista, use win7 instead. One might think Vista is the faster one to run because it's older, but win7 actually takes up way less resources than Vista. And it's a lot less buggy as well.

As far as the CAD packages, worked a lot with inventor and solidworks, none of the other packages. Not much between these two, but if you ask me, SW is the better one.

[Callum]

I don't mean to insult you WB but if you re new to CAD, regardless of program

ALWAYS SAVE YOUR WORK.

..and if its really important back it up onto a USB stick.